AH Trieste decision

[DavidFields]

I am going to argue that the AH decision whether to give Trieste back to Italy or not is the biggest game changing event in the simulation. [Discuss--particularly comparing it to the Lenin choice] It seems to me that it is really two different wars depending on that decision.

Playing the Entente, the AI chose to give Trieste to Italy. My first reaction was, "great".

But then, no Italian navy. No enemy AH units required for garrisoning on the border. Suddenly the Ottomans look more worrisome. (Is Italy normally an MPP help or drag for the Entente?)

My question is this: For the SC Professionals, how often, as the CP, do you find youself making the choice to take the NM hit and give back Trieste? Under what circumstances?

[xwormwood]

I do it under no circumstances.

Ok, under one: if i have been smashed so badly in Galicia, that there are simply no spare HA units at hand to defend the AH-italian borders.

[Ghost of war]

One time I decided to give Trieste to Italians and I really regretted it. First of all, there were multiple mutinies and most of my front-line AH units lost 1-5 points of strength. Experienced Entente player may use this well if Russians are strong enough. Then there were riots in main AH cities (Budapest, Wien and some more, I don;t recall now) and their supply value dropped to 2. I was unable to transfer units between Serbian Front and the rest of AH. And of course NM dropped by 25, which may be a problem, depends on how heavy beating AH took before.

So in my opinion long term benefits, like no Italian fleet or lack of additional front for AH, are not good enough to decide to let Trieste go. Entente fleet is usually superior at this stage of game so couple of naval units less won't change anything in favor of AH. In terms of Italian front, I usually send 2-3 German units to AH-Italian border and fortify them in the cities. Italians are weak at the beginning, they don't have heavy artillery and their HQs are of half strength and it affects supply. So CP player don't need to panic, there are still couple of months to defeat Serbia and pull those units back to punish Italians .

[Sapare]

I did it once and won that game. I say it can be worthwhile if done correctly, but it is a very costly decision.(a real dilima)

As for fleet, if you play it well and give Trieste to Itally you can defeat the entente fleet in that ocean(often making Entente player move ships there to defend it, which can lead to you ALSO defeating them with your full German fleet)

[Bill101]

I have enjoyed using it at times, but be warned that in Breakthrough handing over Trieste does move Romania towards entering the war. So peace with Italy makes war with Romania more likely, as they have their eyes on Transylvania.

This might not be a problem if you're doing well, but if Russia remains strong then helping bring forward Romanian war entry could easily backfire.